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Officially verified by Guinness World Records on 15 September, the T-shirt is currently on display in a hangar at the Denel Aviation Centre near OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg.
A staggering 2 782 square metres on one side, the T-shirt covers the same area as 10 tennis courts and is big enough for 16 692 people to stand on.
Made from more than 7 000 running metres of fabric and home to some 6 500 000 stitches, the hot pink T-shirt took a team of tailors and seamstresses three weeks of working round the clock to sew together.
The gigantic undertaking was the brainchild of Vanish, which tasked Sound Contact, a below the line activations agency, with the responsibility of bringing its vision to life of making of the world’s biggest T-shirt. The actual manufacturing of the T-shirt was managed by National Flag and Branding.
After making the T-shirt, Vanish decided to put its reputation as the best fabric stain remover to the test by allowing a group of exuberant school learners to stain the gargantuan garment. The shirt was soaked in a Vanish solution and the enormous stain disappeared in front of onlookers.
Twice as long as the blue whale (the largest creature on earth), South Africa can be rightly proud of the imposing T-shirt, which dwarfs previous record holders and is a billowy 10 percent larger than its nearest rival.
“Vanish wanted to do something great for South Africa; create excitement and build on the sense of optimism created by the World Cup. Owning the world’s biggest T-shirt is a record for South Africans, made by South Africans. From the people involved, to the material and thread used, this is a 100% home-grown initiative,” says Jiri Kulik, GM for Reckitt Benckiser SA.
The enormous garment - which weighs 1 500 kilograms and has the capacity to park 647 Classic Mini Cooper cars - joins other South African world records set during 2010, including the most successful World Cup soccer tournament ever, the largest trumpet (vuvuzela) and biggest soccer ball.
